NASA's Mars rover landing viewed over 1.5 million times on Twitch

NASA's Mars rover, Perseverance, successfully landed on Mars yesterday and the landing was streamed live on Twitch.

The landing's full stream was viewed over 1.5 million times according to Twitch and the resulting clip of the landing has been viewed over 33,000 times. 

With a large majority of young adults using an online streaming service instead of traditional cable, NASA streaming their landing on Twitch was a way to increase their audience for the event. NASA has had a Twitch channel since 2017 and has broadcasted a ton of cool space-related streams therel. In 2018, the channel streamed a live look at an astronaut venturing into space to do a space walk outside of the International Space Station. 

NASA's Twitch stream garnered over 1.5 million views

The stream was viewed over 1.5 million times on Twitch over the course of the two hour stream. During the most crucial part of the Perseverance's landing, the Twitch chat was full of the new PogChamp emote, as everyone in chat celebrated the success of the landing.

The historic landing was also broadcast on YouTube and other forms of social media. Félix "xQc" Lengyel took a moment out of his normal stream time to watch the landing, adding some intense music right as the rover dropped down to the surface of Mars. 

After a successful mission with Mars' Curiosity rover which landed in 2012, NASA has set out to discover more on the surface of Mars with Perseverance. It was created in order to collect samples with the possiblity of those samples making their way back to earth. Scientists are looking to find signs of ancient life on Mars. This is NASA's ninth mission to land on the Red Planet. 

The rover traveled over 293 million miles since its July 2020 launch and directed its launch towards the Jezero Crater. The rover cost NASA $2.7 billion, which meant there was a lot riding on a successful landing of Perseverance. The rover will now fulfill its mission and continue to send valuable information about Mars.